


Adventure Logs - Zedrys

by McBeard_Creative



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Pathfinder (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Diary/Journal, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Gen, Mission Reports
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-01-13 11:55:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21243683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McBeard_Creative/pseuds/McBeard_Creative
Summary: Log from the adventures of Zedrys, drow magus and freelance mercenary operating in the asmodean country of Oprela.These entries will be official mission reports, either sent to clients or filed in the adventurer's guild archives.  Zedrys also keeps a personal journal, which can be viewedhereThe missions themselves are anything from wholly original quests, to adapted modules with varying degree of alteration.





	1. Forebury Mission Report

Zedrys  
Forebury, Oprela  
Rova 29, 1707

To:  
Alif Sunderpike  
Oprellan Masonry Guild  
Pellis, Oprela

Subject: Mission report from Forebury, objective to secure middenstone contract for masonry guild

Sir,

I write to make a report on the status of the contract I accepted for your guild. I traveled with your two representatives, the axe-wielding dwarf Snandour and the kobold sorcerer Shadax, to Forebury. The journey was uneventful. We arrived to find the town’s streets deserted and a crier calling for “heros”. Upon investigation we learned that a large entity of some unknown nature had been collapsing buildings, mutilating the people inside, and had killed an entire contingent of city guards. The mayor (Heggry) was afraid the city was on the verge of rioting and abandonment. Pursuing this issue seemed a prudent action towards accomplishing our goal of acquiring the middenstone contract.

We investigated a house that had been the site of one such attack. We found literature that indicated a connection to astronomy, summoning, portals, the dark tapestry, and the old gods. A symbol resembling a spiral had been drawn on the wall in a manner that suggested a fresh bleeding corpse as the writing implement. A black slime coated nearly everything, letting off a quite unplaceable and uniquely offensive smell. The corpses in the area had been drained of blood. We found some books containing the spiral symbol from the wall and associating it with a Yog-Sothoth, one of these alleged “old gods”. A tunnel led down into the ground from here with the door burst outward, and and a trail of the same stinking slime leading down the stairs.

We descended the stairs, by my estimate some 800ft into the ground and found ourselves in ancient catacombs. We continued to follow the slime trail through several barricaded doors and spoke with some darkstalkers who had been hired by the local cultists to clear the tunnels. They confirmed the passage of a horrible monstrosity through these tunnels. We continued following the trail to a room we would learn was called The Sunless Grove, where we found an alter with more of the black slime and two mutilated corpses, also drained of blood. Three ghouls attacked us here and were dispatched. A very old book written in Aklo proclaimed itself on the cover to be The Pnakotic Manuscripts, and a pompous inscription on the inside was signed by 5 people, which looked relatively recent. The heavy annotations on the pages made it clear these were responsible for the entity now attacking the city. The book also revealed to us that the entity would require their life force to come to its full power in our world. 

We returned and updated the mayor. He offered us supplies and information on the names in the book. Based on what he gave us, we identified the two drained corpses in the grove as two of the “Keepers” as they called themselves. The ones remaining included a sage rumored to be involved in the local black market, the owner of the local asylum, and Rupman Meyer, the very individual we were sent to secure the middenstone contract with. We rested for the night, it being very late by this point.

The morning of Rova 28 we traveled to the abandoned church where Arlend Hyve was said to spend most of his time. We located him in a cavern underneath the building and though he tried to run, he was subdued. He had been attempting to craft a poison powerful enough to work on the creature when it came for him, as he was keenly aware it would find him. He finished this poison for us in exchange for a quick and clean death. We drained his blood into the nearby underground lake and burned his body.

Next to the middenstone factory, where rumors that Rupman Meyer used undead laborers in order to avoid paying his due taxes proved true. The zombies weren’t a competent threat and Rupman tried to flee under a veil of invisibility but I shattered it and we stabbed him to death. We disposed of his body in one of the industrial vats of middenstone. This was a setback to our initial goal of acquiring a supply of the material, but when taken against the possibility of the entire town being destroyed, I stand by the decision.

The asylum where Walder Crove made his lair appeared to be fortified and Shadax was largely tapped out of magical ability for the day. I was suffering myself but more due to this town’s proximity to the mana blight. It seems as though every time you use magic around here you roll dice to see if it inflicts some sort of injury on you. We visited a local shop for supplies.

The next morning we entered the asylum through a side door. Burly orderlies tried to stop us but they quite clearly didn’t have any significant combat training or ability. Lunatics were chained up at various points in the building like a trail of breadcrumbs. We killed those that we needed to in order to advance. When we closed on Crove himself he ran, and we pursued him into the large cave under the building where he set a chaos beast and various summoned creatures against us. They were dispatched and Snandour ended his miserable life just as Yog-Sothoth entered the building above.

Crove had been planning to trap and interrogate the beast, and to that end had laid certain precautions such as an anti-invisibility field that proved very beneficial to us. The creature’s appearance matched its smell. It attempted to grab us with tentacles but only successfully snagged Snandour, and not well enough to keep him from continuing to cut pieces off of it. Still, it was dangerous enough that it reinforced the correctness of our decision to kill the other keepers. When it fell, it disintegrated into a tiny pile of black powder.

When we returned to the surface we found that the mayor had abandoned the town, fearing for his life at the hands of the locals. We did some investigating and selected a new owner for the middenstone factory: the town accountant. He was happy to agree to the supply contract you desire. We will be leaving town within the next couple of days, so I expect I will see you at the guild hall when I come to collect my fee.

Zedrys


	2. Mission 2: Book Retrieval for Church of Asmodeus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zedrys and crew end find themselves bound into retrieving a book for the local church, becoming involved in a centuries old war while they're at it.

_Mission Recap: Book Retrieval for Church of Asmodeus_  
Date: Lamashan 3, 1707  
Author: Zedrys 

We “discovered” this job on Lam 1 while sitting in our recently acquired estate enjoying a small meal. A warpriest of the church (Viktor Kraven, as I suspect future reports will refer to him frequently) pushed his way in, something about paperwork to do with the ownership transfer. He didn’t wish to stay overlong as this was his last stop before delivering a job to the local adventurer’s guild. I was of a mind for some more adventure myself, given it’s recently proven quite profitable and invigoratingly violent. We convinced him to open the missive, which unbeknownst to us at the time rendered it worthless for sale to the guild and essentially bound us to complete the task or face the wrath of the church. At least they didn’t especially care who completed it so long as it was done.

Shadax was interested, and the undine lyre player (Anansisa) we’d discovered living here with the groundskeeper asked to come along. She professed to have some considerable skill in the arcane arts herself, which did later prove to be true. Snandour told us he was quite sick of adventures, and buggered off to fix the roof. We journeyed to the Puddles district to meet contact named Adril Hestrom in a local tavern called the Soggy Piper. We learned from him that a historian by the name of Yargos Gill had discovered an old code book in an archive. He believed it to be a relic of one Nymphian invasion attempt hundreds of years ago. Given the tight grip the church maintains on historical knowledge I understood why they might want it, but the payment for the job was unusually high, at 4000 gold pieces. When we were told of skeletal figures marching in the streets and unnatural fog, things began to make a bit more sense. The fact that Yargos had been supposed to meet him here with the book but never showed did suggest that there was something more sinister going on, and we should probably find him before he was killed.

After a gin that tasted like shitty vodka briefly acquainted with gone off juniper berries, the bartender told us Yargos was a regular and had in fact been in this very night, but was grabbed by tattooed thugs not long before our contact had shown up. It wasn’t all that unusual in this part of the city and he’d contacted the guards but didn’t expect them to bother with it. The thugs had said something amongst themselves about heading to the local cliffside Torson’s Maw. We tipped well for the information and headed there next.

We found the four tattooed thugs with four prisoners tied up, and though Viktor made what I’m sure was going to be an attempt at diplomacy, they attacked us on sight. While three of theirs fought us, the man in the back pitched one of the prisoners off the cliffside. Viktor twisted that one’s mind causing him to attack his own men instead. When he shook off the control and went back to kill more prisoners, I was behind him. He bizarrely pushed past me as I rained mortal blows upon him and continued trying to kill his captives. When I pierced his heart and cast him aside one of his allies retreated from the engagement up front and did the same. I cut him down as well, though as the third fell and the fourth fled, he merely lay dying. Shadax stabilized him and we lifted him back to consciousness after tying him up.

Between him and the captives (one of which was, mercifully, Yargos) we learned their boss Nessian had the book. A cruel man, they’d evidently been willing to get cut down in futility rather than risk disappointing him. I never did find out what happened to the one that fled. I’m sure he left town. We learned that the book held codes and signals for controlling the Black Echelon, an old Nymphian military unit. This was cause for puzzlement, as nobody had ever heard of this unit. Shadax suggested we consult with her master, the wizard Demnos, in his tower. We made haste to loot the corpses, free the three captives who hadn’t wronged us, and throw everything and everyone that was left over the cliff.

Shad’s master was an observant and learned man, though eccentric and scatterbrained in the way that highly intelligent humans often are. Between him and Yargos we learned that the Black Echelon was a saboteur unit sent in the city to weaken it for a coming invasion some 800 years ago. A variety of signals in the book indicated various tasks they were to perform to this end. Neither knew if they had been undead at the time, but it seemed obvious that they are now. I suggested Demnos provide his apprentice with something suitable for dealing with such creatures, and he produced a wand for her. From the window we noticed a red light blinking in the sky above Pellis’ main granary. Yargos, with much of the book in his recent memory, believed this to be the signal for the Echelon to poison the grain stores, thus ensuring the city would suffer immediate casualties followed by starvation in the event of a siege.

We made haste to the granary and after a brief unsuccessful attempt by Viktor to bluff his way through at the door, we killed the 2 guards and made our entrance. We found 4 more inside and slew them as well. I must say I performed admirably; I suspect the heads would have been rolling if the floor hadn’t been covered in 2 feet of grain. We found five jugs of poison and three dead city militia. Nessian was not present.

Yargos knew of an information broker, name of Grandmaster Torch. He led us to the man, who was initially distrustful and unwilling to make an enemy out of Nessian. Our assurances that we had no desire to let Nessian live didn’t seem to assuage him, and the price of 6000 gold pieces that he put on the information was simply unsuitable. We ended up making a trade of favors: The information we required in exchange for our services opening at least three of five very peculiar chests he had acquired. I managed to crack two of them, my companions the other three. He gave us our information and some extra gold for providing services above what was required. Nessian made his home in a place called the Pyramid of the Dog, an array of old stone siege towers, three collapsed and leaning on the central one. It was very late, so we slept the night in our new beds and made the assault the next morning.

In the morning we saw alternating red an green lights in the sky, said by Yargos to be a signal that an attack on an ancient (considerably less so when the book was written I imagine) cathedral in the center of the city was nigh. The ceasing of the cathedral’s organ would signal the invasion fleet. Given that the Black Echelon was undead and still carrying out their orders, it was reasonable to assume the invasion army may be as well. We made haste to the Pyramid of the Dog.

We easily made our way past three tied up guard dogs and stormed the lower floor of the central spire. Nessian and four of his men attempted to stop us, but they were slowly overpowered. It seemed there was ill luck in the air; they couldn’t hit a damn thing with their crossbows, nor could we with our swords. When I finally broke through the defense of the last henchman on the bottom floor and opened his throat, Nessian fled up the stairs. I had my familiar climb the exterior of the tower to make sure he didn’t try to run, which indeed he did. Viktor and myself gave pursuit, leaving Shadax and Anansisa with the warpriest’s lingering weapon conjuration to finish the crossbowmen.

We caught him not 50 feet out from the structures and surrounded him on both sides. He blocked several mighty blows and suffered several more, then tried to run but was entangled by a spell from Anansisa. Viktor quickly caught up to him and sent him flying into a nearby boulder with one great frustrated swing from his oversized hammer. I stabbed his broken body a multitude of times to ensure he was properly dead, then dragged him back to the tower to be hung from the outside.

We retrieved Yargos and located the book in an upper chamber. He was able to stop the signals and put the soldiers back to rest, though why they rose again in the first place remains a mystery. We will be taking the book to the estate and delivering it to the church as soon as is convenient to collect our reward money. We’ve come to the agreement that we will contribute 10% of every mission reward to the estate’s coffers, which should provide enough funds for some much needed repairs and other services we should like to have if this whole adventurer’s league idea that’s been kicked around comes to fruition.


	3. Mission 4: Cursed Henland Barbarian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again working for the church, the crew is tasked with retrieving a personal effect of a northern warrior.

Mission Recap: Cursed Henland Barbarian  
Date: Lamashan 30, 1707  
Author: Zedrys

This job arrived by courier from the church of Asmodeus. A high ranking official wished us to acquire a personal effect belonging to one Skelg the Ripper, a warrior of some renown from the Henland waters to the north, and currently serving in the Longaxes, a regiment of bodyguards attached to their local embassy. We were to meet a contact in The Soggy Piper, the same establishment in the Puddles that we met the contact at for our last church job. There were learned that Skelg had come into town a month prior and displaying an unusual amount of wealth for someone of his standing. He had purchased a home (Grey Dog Manor) but scarcely been seen for the last several weeks. Rumor had it he had also brought a curse that was slowly killing him. The price was set at 1500 gold pieces for the personal effect and 5000 for any artifacts that might be related to the curse. It was understood we must now attempt to free him from the curse, as the personal effect would be useless for scrying on him if he were dead.

Grey Dog Manor was not difficult to find. The locals were giving the place a wide berth. Only two guards, both beefy Henlanders. The locals reported that visitors had been uncommon over the last month, but since the guard change a week ago, they’d become non-existant. We decided to give straightforwardness a try and approached the gate, summoning the attention of the guards and telling them we were sent to attempt to break the curse on Skelg. I would like the record to show that I didn’t trust these brutes, especially given that they apparently didn’t even know how to wear their house crest (on backwards). However, as I could not detect any aggressive posturing in them, I went along with this plan and it very nearly cost me my life. We were attacked almost immediately upon going through the gate. These barbarians were unsubtle and without technique, but by constantly pressing the attack they nearly won. Once we halted their attacks for a moment and caught our footing, we killed them and proceeded onwards.

The manor was uncomfortably warm, every door or window closed and a fire in every brazier. A bedroom on the top floor contained Skelg and a single servant who had been attending him and the fires. He was a blond, hairy, bearded beast of a man who was shivering under a pile of blankets. We sussed out the story that an enemy named Bengerir had killed his guards and told him he’d die in bed like an old woman. This was roughly a week ago when the locals said all visitors had stopped. There was a tapestry in the basement depicting a funerary ship partly encased in ice and missing the customary lantern at its prow. We were told (reluctantly) that the tapestry was acquired in a raid on the very same ship it depicted. Sounded like the lantern had some sort of magical properties and probably something to do with the curse. The attackers had taken the rest of the spoils from the raid with them, which gave us a clue as to where to sart looking for them. Shad showed us on the way out that she’d lifted a personal grooming kit from him for the purpose of being used as a scrying focus.

We gathered information regarding any new Henlanders in town, found out they were renting a warehouse down at the docks. Spoke to the landlord, flexed a bit, tossed him some coin and got the location of the warehouse. It was out over the water and right next to a docking bay. Anansisa and Shaddax swam while Viktor bluffed our way in with the inspired performance of someone who’s dealt with too much bureaucracy in his life. We located the lantern and were attacked the instant we asked about it. Bengerir bore a holy symbol of a demigod belonging to the pantheon of the western deity Mitra. Shad and Anan came up from below, and we won the fight without drawing attention from the street. The docks are loud, and people who notice such things usually don’t wish to involve themselves in trouble.

Further inspection of the area uncovered a fair amount of cargo, apparently the goods taken from Skelg. A single terrified dock worker had been engaged in the process of loading it onto a ship. We paid him to find a small horde of workers and transport it to our manor for safer keeping. These expenses have been logged on the ledger, much higher than the usual rate as as compensation for discretion. We escorted them back and retired for the night, being all but spent from the day’s exertions.

In the morning we returned to Grey Dog Manor and checked in with Skelg before heading downstairs. Shining the light on the tapestry caused a portal to open. Stepping through transported us to the north, the exact location that had been depicted in fact, something we were not properly attired for because we’re dumb shits. We made haste towards a tunnel now visible in the snow in order to get out of the wind. The tunnel led inside the ship, where we found multiple zombies and a wight wearing a northern funerary mask on the bottom cargo deck. We cut them all down with little trouble and moved to the front of the ship where we found a woman, Natalya, also a Henlander. We learned the full story of what had transpired as regard to the ship.

Skelg had indeed robbed it, though his goal wasn’t plunder but Natalya, who had been intended to die on this, the funerary vessel of her late husband Haldyr. He thought it untenable that she should die because she’d been married off to a warrior decades her senior for political alliance. He met his end on the battlefield when he could no longer keep up, and she was supposed to follow him to their afterlife. He saved her from this fate, but her mother cursed him for it and her son (Bengerir) locked him in Grey Dog manor to die alone and freezing. She was not overly upset to hear of her son’s demise, probably owing to his recent actions. Viktor negotiated a deal whereby we return all the stolen treasure to them and they allow us to keep the Lantern of the North once they had broken the curse. 

Breaking the curse turned out to be a simple matter of returning the lantern to its spot on the prow of the vessel, after which a portal opened up to sail the ship through. She teleported us back to Pellis, and I believe she has plans to establish a permanent means of travel between Grey Dog and Henland so as to allow Skelg to remain here doing the work he came to do in the first place.

The curse, I will mention, was a nasty piece of work. The way she described it, it opened a portal to the arctic inside of Skelg’s body, hence why he could never get warm and was slowly freezing to death. Something of Natalya’s mother’s personal design. She seemed to regard it with a sort of hateful admiration.


End file.
